DES MOINES – Hillary Rodham Clinton has regained her footing in New Hampshire, climbing back to a 12-point lead over Barack Obama there, according to a new poll of Democratic voters.
Clinton leads Obama by 38-26 percent in the CNN/WMUR poll released yesterday, after seeing her lead shrink to a single percentage point in the same survey earlier this month.
Even as she fights to quell a surge by Obama in Iowa, Clinton has been pushing hard to keep her lead in New Hampshire. She’ll fly there tomorrow for a two-day campaign swing. Obama stumped there yesterday.
In Iowa a new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows Obama leading Clinton by 33-29 percent, with John Edwards third at 20.
When voters who back candidates who might not make the 15 percent “cut” required by Iowa’s caucus system were asked to pick their second choice, Obama’s number grew to 37 percent, with Clinton getting 31 and Edwards 26.
The race has a generational rift, with Obama leading Clinton 49-26 among people 18 to 39 but Clinton leading Obama 40-16 among seniors.
Obama leads among the college-educated, while Clinton leads among those without a college diploma.
Also, a CBS News poll in South Carolina found a virtual tie between Obama at 35 percent and Clinton at 34 percent. Edwards came in third with 13 percent.
Meanwhile, on the Republican side, Mike Huckabee has swept away Rudy Giuliani‘s wide national lead in a new Reuters/Zogby poll, trailing by only a single point, 23-22.
Mitt Romney came in third with 16 percent, Fred Thompson got 13 and John McCain 12.
But another national poll, conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, found Giuliani and Romney tied at 20 percent with Huckabee at 17, McCain at 14 and Thompson at 11.
That poll also showed Clinton maintaining a 22-point lead over Obama. In the Reurers/Zogby poll her lead fell to 8 points, from 11 last month.
Clinton barnstormed by car in Iowa yesterday, when her self-dubbed Hill-a-copter and jet were grounded by fog.
Clinton twice wiped her eye at a campaign event in Elkader after getting an emotional introduction by Joe Ward, a constituent. She helped get his insurance company to cover a costly bone-marrow transplant for his son.
“I’m so grateful to Joe for coming all this way,” Clinton said.
David Hauser, a Clinton precinct captain sitting in the third row, said “it looked like she had a little tear in her eye . . . I think she really cares.”
But retired businessman David Burns, sitting in the fourth row, said the show of emotion seemed “staged,” claiming he saw Clinton “just, like, wipe her eye.”
“No way,” said campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson, insisting his candidate did not cry.
Clinton took a swipe at the anti-poverty platform of Edwards, who has been drawing big Iowa crowds, saying, “People talk about poverty in this campaign. Well, we lifted more people out of poverty in the 1990s [when hubby Bill was president] than during any time in our history.”
Clinton said oil-producing countries would slash the price of oil if she got elected, to thwart her energy reforms.
“They’ll drop the price of oil. I predict this to you,” she said.